Simplified crux of Meditation

Meditation in essence is art of just beingand not doing anything at physical/mental level. It is indeed one of the most beautiful form of art.

Loads of research been done and there are proven benefits for overall growth, developing cognitive capabilities, creativity and critical thinking, which we all know or must have read from some source, so will skip the details for brevity.

Start easy with small duration and then increase week by week to stabilize up to 15-30 minutes in morning and 5-15 minutes in evening. Preferred time in morning as soon as we get up or after bath. In the evening, preferred time is when work routine ends or before going to sleep.

Meditation happens and we can not make it happen. Only thing we can do is to cooperate when it happens and not interfere. Unlearning our interfering tendencies is all the wisdom we need to gain in this regard. We are in control and can take a step back, remain witnessing presence without meddling with popping in/out thoughts. Let’s looks some basics to allow meditative silences to emerge in our day to day life.

Basic fundamentals for meditation

Choose a time when you are not in hurry or compulsive doing mode.

Just sit comfortably and start with small prayer for few seconds for bringing peace and goodness to all.

Expect nothing out of meditation. Just know that always doing something or the other is also a big problem, which you would realize at some point of time in life, and through meditation at least you will be comfortable doing nothing for some time. That’s great achievement. And that much motivation is enough to start and sustain this unlearning habit. Any other advantage, experience for yourself on the way, rather expect and slip into anticipation / complaining mode.

When we do nothing actively then normally mental chatter gets accelerated or become quite obvious to us. We slip in thinking mode or fighting or rejecting thoughts that pop up during sitting. Sub-skills to inculcate in this regard

Don’t trigger any new thought to suppress unwanted thoughts

Do not resist – let thoughts come and go. Resistance will persist the thoughts longer in mental space, so remain neutral and indifferent.

Avoid fighting or struggling with negative thoughts, learn to ignore.

Do not desire thoughts to disappear or empty state of mind. Value yourself just being there as observing presence.

Remind yourself again and again not to react to any thought or attach to any bright idea/ day dreaming. Both good/bad categories of thoughts should be simply ignored.

End your session with thankfulness and small prayer for good of all beings

We will take up more posts on Meditation but I think this small summary will help beginners or advanced learners caught up in techniques or repeated struggles.